Approaching The End of the Church Year: Part 1

Around the time of the secular New Year, we all get to thinking about the meaning of our lives. Even if we try not to dance to the tune of non-religious holidays, it is hard to resist making and breaking a few resolutions. Given that we do as much for Dick Clark, it seems something of a duty to give some thought to the meaning of our church lives in anticipation of the upcoming beginning of the new church year.

It seems odd, doesn't it, to say the "new church year". As if we Orthodox would allow anything substantial to change from one year to the next. And yet, there is no denying that every new church year is different from the last. As babies are born and friends are lost to death or distance, the presence of change in the midst of familiarity makes itself known. It seems we are pushing ever-forward into uncharted waters at the same time as we are returning home.

Another way to say this is to note that we are in the peculiar position of remembering that which has yet to occur. As a church we have supped with the resurrected Christ, indeed even been invited to touch his resurrected wounds. We cannot deny that, in Christ, we have all been raised. But how many of us have actually stretched out our arms to touch that new flesh, and become resurrected as a unique member in the body of Christ? As a church we are comfortable with remembering the resurrection. As individuals we tend to look forward to it.

Of course, this tension between the outlook of the individual and that of the universal must ultimately be resolved in favor of the one true outlook of the Universal: the One, the Father. But this is much easier to say than to live. I have a feeling that we all laugh a little too easily at Thomas: that apostle apart who wouldn't believe the testimony of all the rest until he had seen the resurrected body with his own eyes. We tend to forget that Thomas, though last to see Christ, was the first to call him his God. (to be continued, I hope)